Well, Well…
October 28th, 2010 by slangon
I feel as though I owe an apology to the San Francisco Giants and their fans. I was aware that they had a pretty darn good pitching staff, but it would seem that I have grossly underestimated their bats.
I’m actually pretty impressed that they were able to achieve something that other, more impressive (at least on paper) line-ups have not. They were able to chase Cliff Lee. We’re talking about a team that was 15th in the Majors in batting average, 17th in runs scored, 16th in hits, 10th in home runs, and 13th in total bases. Now consider how well Cliff looked against the Rays and the Yankees in the prior rounds. The Rays scored the 3rd most runs in the Majors, and the Yankees ranked 8th in average, 1st in runs scored, 7th in hits, 3rd in homer and 4th in total bases.
What make this achievement a little more impressive to me is that they did it on a night when their own ace was less than spectacular and the line-up consisted of 1 rookie and a bunch of cast-offs. Kudos to you Giants.
By the way, speaking of Lincecum not having his best night, what the frig was the deal with that play in the top of the 1st?
If you happened to miss it, the Rangers already had one run in and runners on 1st and 3rd with 1 out. Nelson Cruz dribbled one about 30 feet up the 3rd base side, which Timmy quickly pounced on and seemingly had Michael Young, who had charged down the line, trapped. He started to run at Young, as you should in a run-down play, but then he just never threw the ball to whoever was covering 3rd. Now he had bases loaded with 1 out. Lucky for him Ian Kinsler hit the first pitch right back to Uribe, who stepped on 3rd for the force and then threw out Kinsler for the 3rd out. It was easily one of the more bizarre mental lapses I’ve witnessed in any baseball game, never mind the World Series, when guys usually step it up a bit.
Anyway, hopefully Texas pitching can step it up a bit tonight and quite those Giants bat a little. It’d be nice to head back to Arlington with a split, rather than down 2 games to none.
In the mean time, here’s some more old World Series cards.
He’s another of the 1960 Topps World Series Highlight cards, oddly enough the second in a row of Charlie Neal. Now if you read my post yesterday, which was highlighting World Series Game 1 cards, I was wondering why they chose to highlight Charlie’s stolen base in the first (which didn’t even result in a run) when the White Sox beat the Dodgers 11-0. I even specifically mentioned that maybe Ted Kluszewski’s 2 home runs would have been a more appropriate highlight. Then on the very next card, they call out none other than Charlie Neal hitting 2 home runs. Did Charlie Neal’s brother work at Topps or something? Again, I love the crowd shot behind the action.
In case you were wondering, this is the only year where I actually own all the World Series highlight cards. I’m sure that’s just coincidence and has nothing to do with the Mets having won that year. This card, like the 1960 one above, should also serve as inspiration to the Rangers that you don’t have to win the first game to win the series.
Of course, there’s also been plenty of times where whoever won the first game went on to win the World Series. Such was the case in the ’72 Fall Classic, when the Oakland A’s beat the Reds in 7 games. I love this particular card, by the way. That action shot is one of the coolest perspectives ever. I love that you see the baserunner and second baseman (or shortstop) lying in heap by the bag after the take-out slide, both watching the play develop at first, dust still flying. I also love that neither the ball or the runner has gotten to the base yet. Was he out? Was he safe?
I always sort of forget that the Mets made it to the World Series in ’73. I guess that happens when you don’t win. This also happens to be the only card I own of the Say-Hey Kid in a Mets uniform, which is another thing that I often forget about. It must’ve been pretty exciting though for old-time New Yorkers to be watching Willie Mays in a World Series with “New York” across his chest, albeit in orange and blue, rather than orange and black.
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